Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

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Romania: French-speaking country and active member of the OIF

The French language is studied by more than half of the students and spoken by one in five Romanians today, but is threatened by the rapid progression of English. Therefore, France, in response to Romania’s need to train the administrative elite quickly, is continuing its actions supporting the technical and linguistic training of administrative executives in line with the multiyear plan to “revive French learning in the Romanian government”, implemented since 2004. The education law of 20 October 2010 maintains the evaluation of two international languages on the baccalaureate. This constitutes a victory for the advocates of French against a plan that aimed to allow only one language to remain, which would have sharply penalized French, which is being learned by 1.7 million Romanian students today.Romania, a full-fledged member of the Francophonie organization, since the Mauritius Summit in 1993, hosted the 11th Francophonie Summit on 28 and 29 September 2006.

Our cultural and linguistic cooperation is intense in this context. In Romania, it is based on a branched network of institutions: the French Institute of Bucharest, with three provincial branches (Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara), five Alliances françaises (Brasov, Constantza, Craiova, Pitesti, Ploiesti) and the French “Anna de Noailles” lycée in Bucharest, to which the Romanian government has allocated for free a plot of land to build a new site which should be provided for the 2013 school year.

In addition, there are bilingual departments in secondary education (59), French-language courses of study (10), postgraduate (17) and higher education (70) French-language teaching modules, with everything supported by a vast scholarship programme. The first bilingual baccalaureate holders (381 students, 98.1% success rate) received their diplomas in July 2008.

In 2012, the embassy’s total budget dedicated to cultural, scientific and technical cooperation is 2.3 million euros.

Franco-Romanian cooperation on the issue of the integration of the Roma populations

The issue of the integration of the populations

Bilateral cooperation intended to combat the crime of networks that exploit the Roma populations and promote the integration and reintegration of these populations in Romania, has been established. Sixteen Romanian police officers were sent to France at the end of 2011 to support the French police in the fight against the criminal networks that are rife between France and Romania.

Other exchanges are planned to strengthen this cooperation. In addition, in late 2011, a French technical assistant was placed with the Secretary of State for the integration of the Roma populations, Mr. Valentin Mocanu. France now wants this issue to be debated at the European level, in order to create a framework enabling the Roma populations’ States of origin to bear their responsibility to integrate them. This is also the European Commission’s wish, requesting that the Member States develop for the end of 2011, their national strategies for the integration of the Roma populations. The Commission’s departments are currently reviewing these different strategies.